Tacugama

Category: Tacugama | Date: Aug 18 2009 | By: tacugama

It is wet, wet, and wet here! August has the highest rainfall on record in Sierra Leone (almost 100cm in one month only) and it is no different this year.

Kouze in the rain
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Everyone is soaked to the skin. Staff keep taking turns to sit around the kitchen fire in between their busy schedule. The hairy ones are having it tough too. Although the bigger boys and girls are used to this, some of the smaller chimps are down with the usual coughs and colds that this time of the year brings, but they are coping. (Our thoughts and best wishes are with the Limbe team as they work hard to treat the pneumonia hitting their primates.)

It is difficult to see the chimps in the bigger enclosures except during feeding times as everyone takes cover in the bush from the downpours. Yesterday we had a hole in the clouds and some sunlight emerged through it for a few minutes. I was happy enough to take the camera out and the chimps in Philip’s group were happy to come and see some sunlight too! They went into a grooming frenzy. Every single one was grooming and getting groomed. Even Babes was in the middle of it and allowed big boy, Jido, to groom her month old baby.

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Tags: Chimpanzee, Rainfall, sanctuary, Sierra Leone, Tacugama, wildlife

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Category: Quarantine, Tacugama | Date: Aug 04 2009 | By: tacugama

Yesterday sadly saw two more small chimps arrive at Tacugama - Abu and Thulani add to the recent orphan arrivals of Chippe, Blama and Sunny and leave us close to bursting at the seams. We now have 96 chimpanzees needing Tacugama’s care.

Thulani was taken to the Gola Forest Project team in the south-east of Sierra Leone on Saturday by a local man hoping to sell him - he was quickly corrected and Thulani was confiscated. The Gola forest team have brought several chimps to us including Gola, Gaura, Urgent, Bai Nyaa, Mac and Jessica.

Handa Zeller with Thulani before travelling to Tacugama - the t-shirt says it all
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After a long drive on difficult, rainy season roads, Thulani arrived late last night. He’s probably two years old and not been with people for long. Small and nervous and with a slight cold, he’ll need closer attention from Posseh than Abu.

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Tags: Chimpanzee, orphan, sanctuary, Sierra Leone, Tacugama, wildlife

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Category: Tacugama | Date: Aug 03 2009 | By: tacugama

Our July 2009 newsletter is now available for you to catch up on a summary of our work for the first six months of 2009.  Click here to download your copy.

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Many thanks to great design work from Ewa and to Rosa, Tess and Frankie for preparing the content. We hope you enjoy reading it and look forward to your comments.

Also congratulations to Ewa and her fiance, Dominic O’Neil, who were married on Friday 31st July in Poznan, Poland! We wish them a very happy future together and look forward to seeing them back in Sierra Leone after their honeymoon.

Tags: Chimpanzee, newsletter, sanctuary, Sierra Leone, Tacugama, wildlife

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